Fasten The Leg In Her jig

AKA Fasten the Leggin’, an Irish jig I learned from Dale Russ in Seattle.You can add rolls or other ornamentation on the doted quarter notes.

Fasten The Leggin’ (which I heard played during the Mrs Crotty Festival this year) must surely be the correct name for this tune. “Fasten The Leg In Her” is meaningless and is obviously a mis-hearing of the correct title.
Trevor

Scots musicians Iain MacDonald and Iain MacFarlane recorded this tune as “The Humours of Cork” with additional parts written by pipier Donald MacLeod.

K: Gmaj
~B3 BAB|GBd gdB|~A3 AGA|Bee dBA|
~B3 BAB|GBd ~g3|efg fag|1 fed edc:|2 fed e2f||
~g3 ~f3|ede gdB|~A3 AGA|Bee def|
~g3 ~f3|ede gdB|def gag|fed e2f|
~g3 ~f3|ede gdB|~A3 AGA|Bee dBA|
~B3 BAB|GBd ~g3|efg fag|fed edc||
BBB ABB|GBd gdB|AAA GAA|Bee dBA|
BBB ABB|GBd gfg|efg fag|1 fed edc:|2 fed e2f||
gee aee|gdd edB|AAA AGA|Bee def|
gee aee|gdd edB|def gag|fed e2f|
gee aee|gdd edB|AAA AGA|Bee dBA|
BBB ABB|GBd gfg|efg fag|fed edc||

LOL, I think Trevor’s missed the double entendre here….

This also seems to be the ‘Humours of Corcaigh’ recorded by Capercaillie in a set with PM Jimmy Pride and MacLeod’s Farewell, although they play it in a higher key.

http://www.tonyhinnigan.com/
http://www.tonyhinnigan.com/whistles.php#

2.) Whistle in Eb by Susato ~ tune learned from from Tommy Keane
http://www.tonyhinnigan.com/movie.php?pageName=tony3.mov

X: 3
T: Fasten The Leg In Her
S: Tony Hinnigan
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: G Major
|: ~B3 ~B3 | GB/c/d gdB | ~A3 AGA | Bee dBA |
B2 B BAB | GB/c/d g2 g | efg eag |[1 fd^c d=cA :|[2 fd^c def ||
gbg faf | e/f/ge dBA | ~G3 AGA | B2 e def |
g2 g f/g/af | e/f/ge dB/c/d | efg eag |[1 fd^c def :|[2 fd^c d3 |]

Seems to me the origin of this tune’s name is not in any unlikely innuendo or the equally improbable fasten the legging but most likely a result of our maritime history. Back in the day when just about everything that needed to be moved was shifted in small long hulled sailing boats it was not unusual at all for the crew to beach the boat at high tide. As the tide turned the crew would fasten legs, carried on board the vessel especially for the purpose, midship on either side of the vessel to keep her upright when no longer afloat. This way the tune becomes more likely a celebration of a return to safe berth for the crew, the end of a particular voyage, a promise of a night ashore and such like. After all most innuendo finds an echo, at the least, in common use past or present, who has ever heard of this expression in use beyond this flawed interpretation of this tune’s title?

That’s a very interesting explanation Steve T.

Those kind of supports you describe would (these days) be called shores. I have never heard them called legs before, but no doubt there are local variations (as with most other things).
Do you mind me asking what is your source of information?

Thanks.

Hi Tash like I say this is my take on the title, speculative really but based on the 2 years I spent living and working on a traditional if slightly small, gaff schooner. The bloody great lumps of wood we carried and used to hold her up when she was on the dry we called legs.

I have heard an Irish woman I used to stay with in Nantes say it was something to do with the removable legs that they used to have on the organ that would be carried around by the clergy and such when they were doing the missionary thing from village to village in the days of yore. I didn’t really buy that either though. I guess these days all interpretations are somewhat speculative.

Interesting. Thanks.

Something like this for those not nautically inclined:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d164/Sauniere59/TurkeyApril2008027.jpg
🙂

No, you fit legs when afloat or just touching, without getting your feet wet. Try a Google image search for “boats on legs”.

Yeah David has got it. Those things in Tash’s pic are what are used when a boat is craned ashore these days, because the owner doesn’t want the plastic smashed up over winter, as opposed to the legs that an old time working, wooden, sailboat carried, when on the move, for the times the vessel would be deliberately allowed to beach with the tide. Sadly the practice is as rare as a small working boat these days and pictures are not easily found otherwise I’d post a link. Where I beg to differ with David is in the not getting your feet wet comment, I’m not the sailor those old timers were and somehow I always seemed to manage it!

Potato/pot-ah-toe 😉

That was a bad example picture, but as I have used them the difference between shores and legs is only semantics. But I feel we are digressing from the dedicated subject of this site 🙂

Always interesting to hear other people’s interpretations though.

A Willie Clancy jig.

I’m think this tune is most commonly known as “Fasten The Leg In/On Her” rather than “Fasten the Leggin’”. I’ll edit the title accordingly, but of course it can be edited it back if I’m mistaken.

I played many’s a time with Johnny O’Leary who often played this tune, and called it “Fasten the leg in her”.
Oh goodness me !!! I find the “interpretations” of many of these tunes absolutely astounding and
frustrating.
You may as well go the whole hog and call it …. Fast an’ the leg in ‘er
The bulk of these Irish Tunes are composed by Lads and Lassies of rural origin -
certainly not urbanized, maritimed, Anglo City Dwellers !
This is a term derived from those used to dealing with cattle - ESPECIALLY Milking Cows.
Many’s the time this phrase was AND IS used to direct someone to tie (or spancil) a cow who kicked or was
a “difficult” milker and lashed out at the milker or the machinery attached to her udder …. or are we now to believe that milk comes out of bottles ….. !!!!!! Unbelievable !!!! The term speaks for itself, but of course there is also a wee bit of double meaning as well !!!!
It reminds me of someone on this site who “couldn’t quite understand” the line in Pecker Dunne’s song O’Sullivan’s John, which he read as ….. “far along the road to ROME” instead of “… to ROAM”.
Gimme a break lads !!! Try using the ould GREY MATTER ….. the mine is rich, so DIG DEEP !!!!!

For what it’s worth, this tune is in the Goodman manuscript, vol. 1 (1861), under the title “Fasten the Leg in Her”. Check it out: http://goodman.itma.ie.